My Oscar Predictions

Oscar nominations will be announced tomorrow morning, bright and early at 8:30am. All of our hopes, wishes, favorites, dreams, predictions will all be shattered in a matter of hours. Movies that we have loved, performances that have meant something to us, may be forgotten. It happens every year. The Academy has chosen what they liked, and have forgone the path of the critics and the consensus, for years now, and yet we shake our heads in disbelief at their choices. We should expect some shocks, surprises, and disappointments are likely. Let's just hope their nominees will be ones that bring a smile to our faces, and not cause us to throw our hands in the air in anger.

I am going to share with you what I feel will happen tomorrow morning, at least in the main categories:

Best Picture
12 years a Slave
American Hustle
Gravity
The Wolf of Wall Street
Nebraska
Captain Phillips
Her
Dallas Buyers Club
Saving Mr. Banks
Alt: Inside Llewyn Davis or Philomena

Best Director 
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Steve McQueen, 12 years a Slave
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street
Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
Alt: Spike Jonze, her ; Alexander Payne, Nebraska ; Jean-Marc Vallee

Best Actor
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejifor, 12 Years a Slave
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Alt: Robert Redford, All is Lost ; Christian Bale, American Hustle

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Amy Adams, American Hustle (really up in the air on this choice)
Alt: Meryl Streep, August: Osage County

Best Supporting Actor
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street (only because he deserves a spot)
Alt: Daniel Bruhl, Rush (the likely 5th spot nominee) ; James Gandolfini, Eough Said

Best Supporting Actress 
Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska
Oprah Winfrey, The Butler
Alt: Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine

Best Adapted Screenplay 
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street
Philomena
Captain Phillips
Before Midnight

Best Original Screenplay 
Her
Nebraska
American Hustle
Inside Llewyn Davis
Dallas Buyers Club

Best Animated Feature 
Frozen
The Wind Rises
Monsters University
Despicable Me 2
The Croods

Not sure how it will go down in the morning. At this point, we can only hope for the best. I would love some happy unexpected shocks, I just hope they stay away from the bad shocks, unlike last year. I will put the nominees up tomorrow morning, as soon as I find out! Move out of the way of the avalanche, because it is about to crash.